Manufacturing Services Manage Complexity, Drive Growth

Manufacturing Services Manage Complexity, Drive Growth

Abstract

In today’s competitive scenario of commoditization of products and services, technology is no longer a differentiator. During these times of unprecedented change, the characteristic and capability that matter most is the ability to extract value from the business drivers. Revenue, flexibility, speed, efficiency and cost are these fundamental drivers that drive the enterprise and its supply chain. Capturing KPIs and benchmarking is an improvement technique that considers how others perform a similar activity, task, process or function. Continuous health check up of the enterprise supply chain through Key Performance Indicators (KPI) measurement, as well as its comparison against benchmark values can identify the specific business driver from which value can be extracted.

HCL’s platform-independent KPI Benchmarking Tool, TOUCHSTONE is a unique proposition for continuous measurement of supply chain KPIs, its comparison against benchmark values and identification of the areas of improvement and the business driver. In this paper, we present our point of view of the crucial KPIs in supply chain area and how these can be measured and benchmarked.

Excerpts from the Paper

Manufacturing enterprises today are constantly challenged to achieve leaner operations and cut costs. The new reality following the economic downturn in 2008 and 2009 has put additional pressure on CEOs and CIOs to reduce costs more than ever. Businesses have become increasingly complex as their product portfolios, markets and sourcing locations grow. This complexity of products, processes, organization and technology can either be a burden or an advantage. Companies that manage complexity of their business can be very competitive while others which struggle to manage complexity, are not competitive.